Chapter Text
Two figures were in the middle of a clearing surrounded by tall trees and shadowed by dark clouds. Tiny Aoi panted, her lungs burning. She was kneeling, hands twisted in the soft grass below her as her battered and bruised body struggled to breathe normally. When she looked up, the wind blew the brown hair out of her face to reveal mismatched eyes brimming with tears and despair.
"I'm sorry, Father," she whispered, looking at the intimidating man before her.
Her father stared down at her with cold eyes the color of ice. The deep frown on his face reflected his displeasure, as did his arms that were crossed across his chest. Lord Arashi Inazuma was a formidable man, as the head of Clan Inazuma, known for their powerful Storm Creation. The Inazuma were proud of their kekkei genkai, able to command lightning and become one with the storms in the sky. So when it was discovered that a child of the Inazuma clan had inherited the kekkei genkai, it was a great source of pride for their parents. It was precisely why Arashi was glaring at his daughter so coldly.
Thunder boomed in the sky above them, followed by a quick succession of lightning that danced across the sky, illuminating the blue eye Aoi had inherited from her father. It was the only thing she had inherited from the man before her; one blue eye the color of ice. Her brown right eye, hair, and face were gifted to her by her mother, a woman who was no more. Her father had hair the color of the clouds he summoned and hard edges to his features.
"Get up, Aoi," Arashi said coldly. "Try again."
Aoi bowed her head as she obeyed, slowly standing up before holding her hands out in front of her. Father pointed a finger at her.
"Begin."
Aoi bit her lip as she channeled chakra into her hands, performing the hand signs taught her.
O-ushi
Usagi
Inu
Tori
Tora
Anxiously, the girl waited a moment before shakily repeating the hand signs. She attempted the summoning four more times to no avail. Aoi looked up to the storm above her, willing it to respond to her. Above her, thunder rumbled quietly, ignoring her. Aoi closed her eyes as she heard her father sigh angrily.
"You are unable to summon a storm. You cannot do what any Inazuma toddler could at eight years old. You have disgraced my Clan."
Aoi looked at her father as tears began to flow from her mismatched eyes.
"I'm sorry, Father, I... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'll try harder-"
"SILENCE!" Arashi roared. Lightning crackled along his fingers as thunder boomed above. "You cannot do it! You are a disgrace to this Clan! Inazuma has produced children with Storm Creation since before the birth of the Hidden Leaf Village and Konoha!"
He approached Aoi as lightning flashed across the sky, responding to her father's ire. Aoiclasped her hands in front of her chest as he stopped before her, his cold blue eyes boring into her soul with nothing but rage.
"You are no Inazuma! And you are no daughter of mine! Damn you, and damn your mother! If it hadn't been for her, for you, the Inazuma name wouldn't have been humiliated!"
Arashi continued screaming at Aoi, ignoring the tears that began streaming down her cheeks. Aoi began to shake, feeling her knees turn to mush. She fell to her knees and covered her ears, sobbing as her father continued to shout hateful things at her. The wind picked up as lightning continued to streak across the sky, and thunder boomed louder than ever.
" It would have been so much better if you had never been born."
Aoi looked up at her father as he stared coldly at her, hiccupping as she tried to stop crying. Then, everything went deadly still- the wind died, the thunder stopped, and the lightning disappeared from her father's fingers. It had become almost silent except for Aoi sniffling. Rubbing her eyes, she stood up and stepped away from her father.
"I'm sorry," she whispered hoarsely.
Her father said nothing, continuing to stare her down.
Aoi dropped her hands to her sides, sniffling. She couldn't understand why her father hated her so much. He loved his other children, her older brother, and her younger sister. They were never screamed at or given less food. They had many toys and fitted clothes and never slept on anything stiff. He treated them the way a father should.
Why did he hate her so much?
Aoi was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. Then she noticed the sensation everywhere, the hairs on her arms and the hair on her head lifting off her skin. She only has a split second to look at her father in horror as she realizes what is about to happen. Arashi stared back at her coldly, his rage from moments before forgotten. Then the world flashed bright white and crackled in her ears. The world around her began to move in slow motion as she felt the lightning bolt summoned by her father carve through her, melting through her skin. It wrapped around her, burning through the left side of her body. The only thing she could hear above the loud ringing in her ears was the sound of her scream as the world returned to average speed. The last thing Aoi saw was the grass beneath her, slowly fading away as she lost consciousness.